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When Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef was released in 1999, even Game of Thrones's Three-Eyed Raven, who can basically see everything ever, couldn't have predicted the mop-haired mockney's rise to worldwide fame and estimated £240 million fortune.

But here we are, and what a journey it's been. That initial series, and the accompanying book, which sold three million copies in 25 languages, launched a career that inspired and irritated in equal measure.

I'm firmly in the former camp. On my 13th birthday my godparents gave me a copy of 2004's Jamie's Kitchen. That same year I met Jamie – because he's pretty much always referred to on first-name terms – very fleetingly (perfectly nice bloke), and...